Hip arthroscopy is becoming an increasingly common and effective surgery as it allows for the repair and resurfacing of various parts of the hip with minimal surgical trauma to the patient. However, such a procedure requires distraction of the femoral head from the acetabulum of the pelvis to allow for arthroscopic access to the tissues within the joint.
The hip is a constrained joint, and has an anatomical structure similar to a ‘tight’ ball and socket joint. Therefore, distraction requires, relatively speaking to other joints, a fairly large amount of traction force to create a space in the joint that is adequate for the surgical procedure.
The current distraction device standard for hip arthroscopy is the fracture table where the femoral head is distracted from the acetabulum by pulling the leg away from the pelvis to create sufficient joint space. Counter-traction is achieved by placing a fixed post placed at the patient's groin. The fracture table procedure is a crude and imprecise mechanism that may give risk to postoperative complications such as pudendal nerve injury and other joint (e.g., ankle or knee) damage. Accordingly, there is a need in the art to develop a technology with the goal to reduce such postoperative complications for the patients while maintaining adequate joint space in the hip for arthroscopic surgery.